This invention relates to earth moving machinery, and more particularly to an attachment for a tractor providing a bucket and blade which are adjustable to various angular configurations.
Conventional earth moving machinery can be found in many styles and forms, from small tractors and their attachments to large bulldozers and the like. The present invention is especially suitable for small and medium size tractors, although specific size or type of equipment is not a factor herein. Conventional bulldozers having blades which skew or tilt to various angles are complicated in manufacture and operation and are characterized by their heavy weight and poor stability because the center of gravity of the entire machine is displaced from the center of gravity of the tractor.
Attachments for small tractors are also varied, the most common being backhoe devices and scraper blades for the rear of the tractor, and dozer blades and front-end-loader attachments for the front of the tractor. For front end-loaders the most common configuration is that of a frame on the tractor mounting arms on each side thereof, which are pivotable in a plane extending upwardly and forwardly. In the position that the loader is on the ground, the arms extend straight forwardly to the front of the tractor, and then a solidly mounted downwardly extending dogleg mounts a bucket. The bucket is mounted to pivot forward and back. It is desirable to be able to lift the bucket to a high reach overhead, and to do so it is common in prior art equipment to provide elongated arms. But this promotes unsafe conditions in lifting a heavy load at ground level unless the back of the tractor is properly counterweighted.
The above described attachment for a small tractor has many useful purposes, but for many applications it is not able to adopt a useable configuration. For instance, it is sometimes desirable to push dirt as a dozer, but with prior art equipment this requires removing the front-end-loader and then attaching a dozer blade. Such is a complicated and time consuming change. Further, only more complicated and heavy weight dozer blade attachments have the ability to skew so that one side leads as with a grader, or to tilt so that one side is higher than the other.
Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention to provide an attachment for a tractor, including a wheeled tractor, Caterpillar tractor, or other vehicle, which combines the advantages of a front-end-loader bucket and a dozer blade.
Another object is to provide for skewing the bucket or blade with one side leading the other.
Yet another object is to provide for tilting the blade or bucket so that one side is higher than the other.
A further object is to provide extendable and retractable arms for lifting a load high enough to dump it into a large dumptruck, and yet also to be able to load heavy weights close to the front wheels of the tractor with less counterweighting required.
Yet another object is to provide skewing and tilting operating mechanisms which are light weight so that there is only minimal loss of lifting capacity due to the additional features.
Another object is to provide easily performed adjustments to various configurations.
A further object is to provide the features of a combination bucket-blade assembly, a skewing assembly, and a tilting assembly either individually or all on the same piece of equipment.
A still further object is to provide a device which is able to assume multiples of the various configurations as desired by the operator.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention and the manner in which they are achieved will become apparent as the present specification proceeds, taken in conjunction with the drawings which illustrate the preferred embodiment.